The fund will invest in a diversified set of catastrophe exposures, such as hurricanes, typhoons and earthquakes, in different parts of the world, with no more than 20% of its funds exposed to a single catastrophic event.

The founder, Tony Belisle, helped build collateralized reinsurance contracts when he was at Citadel.

According to the FT, "insurance-linked securities such as catastrophe bonds, which also offer extreme risk exposure, had seen their third best year ever in 2010 with $3.8bn worth of securities sold."

Backers include JP Morgan Asset Management, Baillie Gifford, Henderson Global and the Qatar Insurance Company, which is their major investor. The fund, called the Reinsurance Opportunities Fund, has so fair raised US$80 million.

DE Shaw and Credit Suisse AM are two of the main players in the collateralised reinsurance market, and there aren't many others.